We flew to Chicago yesterday. Chicago, of course, is much chillier than the San Francisco Bay Area, so we packed our cold weather gear. You know, coats, gloves, hats…

…hats?

I went searching through my cold weather gear, and wasn’t able to find my previously knitted Festive Hats (they must have gotten lost in the move). So, in what has become a nearly yearly tradition, I knitted myself a hat on the plane.

And here it is! A most palpable hat.

A festive hat for 2012!

The photo, alas, doesn’t really do it justice. In real life the blue is a bright turquoise/cerulean blue, and the yellows and pinks are redder and richer than in the photo. It is a most faaaaaabulous hat, and I was very happy to wear it on a short walk tonight. I’ll try to take a better photo later.

By way of comparison, here are some previous Festive Hats:

2009 Festive Hat

2008 Festive Hat

I think this is better than its predecessors, though, so I hope I don’t lose this one!

I’m pleased to report that the hat worked just fine when we went for a walk – my ears and head stayed nice and warm. My cheeks and nose, however, were freezing cold. Perhaps I need a scarf or a balaclava? I do have two additional balls of yarn…. 🙂

So I dusted off the old knitting machine that I’d bought off Craigslist a year or two ago, and gave it a go.Â After four hours of pulling my hair out, I am pleased to present the following:

Can complete world domination be far behind?

Getting started was extremely frustrating – the manual was written in very bad English and almost useless for machine operation (though it did contain some detailed photos that proved handy in assembling the machine).Â Since I’d never tried machine knitting before, and wasn’t sure the equipment would work, it was a bit of an adventure as I twisted dials, adjusted tension, and discovered a million ways of operating the equipment incorrectly.

Anyway, it appears that, with a few more hours of practice, I should be competent to create knitted blanks for sampling.Â For the actual weaving I will probably have a friend with an auto-knitter do it, to save wear and tear on my shoulder.Â Knitting a blank long enough for 16 yards of warp makes me tired just thinking of it!

To improve the learning curve, though, I’m going up on Saturday to visit my friend Nancy Roberts.Â Aside from having the handy auto-knitter and a business creating knitted blanks, she is also a machine knitting teacher and can help me inspect and troubleshoot my machine as well as helping me with basic technique.Â If I can get both of those set, and the row counter repaired, I think I’ll be in business.

Weaving-wise, I think what I will do is created knitted blanks for both green and brown and the multicolor samples.Â This is a design experiment of sorts – seeing how the color and value progression affects the way the eye moves through the piece.Â I want a balance between background and leaves that draws the eye to the leaves as they fall to the ground, while providing a sense of motion in the rest of the piece as well.

Come to think of it, a faster way to do the design experiments might be to dye commercial cotton fabric and do the cutouts with an Exacto knife.Â It won’t show how it will look when woven but should work well enough for color and value samples in real fabric – much better than Photoshop simulations!Â So I will try that over the next few days, before dyeing and weaving up the knitted-blank samples.Â Sounds like fun!

Yesterday I cast on the first stitches for my new Funky Hat, and believe it or not, I finished it the same day!

Here are the photos:

The funky knitted hat, front viewFunky hat, side view

(Note the pom-pom.Â It is imperative that every Funky Hat have a pom-pom. 🙂 )

I like it!Â I admit cheerfully that the cable I put in (barely visible in the side) doesn’t show at all, but other than that it’s a nifty little hat that will keep my ears warm in Chicago.Â And pretty to boot.

Compare to last year’s Funky Hat:

2008 funky knitted hat, with fabulously fluffy pom-pom!

I’m enjoying this so much that I think I may make this a yearly tradition!Â Only, me being me, next year I shall have to try it with beaded, sequinned, and sparkly yarn in addition to more practical (for which read “warm”) yarns.

Mike’s uncle lives way out in the country, well out of coverage range for my wireless provider, and doesn’t have Internet access, so I’ve only been able to access the Web on my iPhone during our trips into town. As a result I’m woefully behind on reading email, so if you’ve sent me anything recently, I probably won’t answer until I get back. (I have downloaded WordPress for the iPhone and will try posting this from the iPhone tomorrow once I get into coverage range again.)

I have, however, not been idle. Today we visited two fellow weavers and the Folk Art Center, which had all sorts of beautiful crafts and textiles. Alas, no photos allowed, so I can only tell you to go visit, if you’re in the area. Lots of neat stuff.

I’ve also been keeping busy in our “down” time, working on some bobbin lace samples and on a pair of socks. The socks are pretty neat – I dyed up a sock blank before I left with a stripe of bright fuchsia at the top, followed by a gradual fade from turquoise to fuchsia at the bottom. I’m going to try posting one of the photos at the end of the post, but the colors are badly off – it’s actually bright fuchsia and deep turquoise, jewel tones.

The bobbin lace, though, is where I’ve been spending most of my time. It’s been a real challenge to figure out even a very simple pattern but I’m gradually getting the hang of the terminology and learning how to “read” the lay of the bobbins and how to disentangle my mistakes. It’s slow work and not very photogenic yet but I am making progress.

Tomorrow I’m going off to see Alice Schlein! Can’t wait to meet her and check out her studio.

Our vacation in North Carolina (Asheville area) is approaching fast, and try as I may, I haven’t been able to think up anything dress-related to bring with me, especially since my laptop is dead.Â So, I will have to fall back to my old standby: socks!

Towards this, I offer this photo:

Sock yarns and sock inspiration!

The yarn is Mini Mochi, in two slow-changing colorways.Â I’m also going to dye some Knitpicks sock yarn that I had sitting around into my favorite garnet red color, for those sock patterns that do better in a single shade.Â And I may do some painted sock blanks that gradually fade from one color (say, fuchsia) to another (say, turquoise) over the length of the entire sock.Â That’s assuming I can find the sock blanks that are in my stash, of course.

But four pairs of socks ought to keep me busy for the 10 days we’ll be visiting Mike’s uncle at his cabin in the Appalachian Mountains.Â And of course I’ll be stopping by to visit Alice Schlein’s studio in South Carolina, while I’m there.Â Alice graciously agreed to a visit, and I’m looking forward to it very much.

If anyone knows of other fiber-related things to check out in the Asheville, NC area, please let me know!

Regarding the samples – the issue with the 120/2 silk isn’t that it isn’t possible to weave it.Â By carefully clearing each shed, checking each shed in the mirror before throwing the shuttle, etc. it’s perfectly weavable.Â But it’s not weavable at the speed I would need in order to complete 20 yards of it AND 20 yards of dress fabric AND design and sew the dresses by February 15, the deadline to enter Convergence’s fashion show.Â I’m really hoping to get this piece into the Fashion Show in July.

Having thought things through, I think my next step (on Lillian’s advice) will be to warp up a full-width sample of the 60/2 silk.Â I will wind the warp at 72 epi, since Peg says she’s used it successfully (thanks Peg!), and sley it 4/dent in my 18-dent reed.Â If that doesn’t work, I’ll remove 12 threads from each section (juggling the removal so the threading sequence is not disturbed), resley, and try it at 60 epi (2/dent in a 30-dent reed).

My reason for doing a full-width sample is pretty clear: I want to know what the warp is going to do, at the width I’m going to weave it, BEFORE I start winding 20-odd yards of warp.Â I already know that 96 epi is fine at 6″ wide but a nightmare at 24″.Â I want to make sure that 72 epi will work, on my loom, at the width I’m weaving, before I commit to it.Â It will be a pain to warp up 1728 threads just for a sample, but far less of a pain than running into problems again.Â So I will be putting on a 24″ wide sample warp, starting tomorrow.Â I hope to get it completely beamed on and at least partially threaded before I leave.Â I have three days left to do it, so that ought to be feasible.